PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Increases Stake in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSGP) by 16.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 103,547 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,468 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in CoStar Group were worth $7,812,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CSGP. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of CoStar Group in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in CoStar Group in the first quarter valued at about $4,223,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its holdings in CoStar Group by 31.1% in the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 40,525 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,005,000 after purchasing an additional 9,618 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank lifted its position in shares of CoStar Group by 111.9% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 16,726 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,240,000 after buying an additional 8,833 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of CoStar Group by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 974,084 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $73,485,000 after buying an additional 23,825 shares in the last quarter. 96.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at CoStar Group

In other CoStar Group news, CEO Andrew C. Florance purchased 14,731 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $74.67 per share, for a total transaction of $1,099,963.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,263,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,315,527.66. This trade represents a 1.18 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Michael R. Klein sold 71,633 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $5,350,268.77. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,913,501 shares in the company, valued at approximately $142,919,389.69. The trade was a 3.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CSGP shares. StockNews.com cut shares of CoStar Group from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on CoStar Group from $78.00 to $75.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Citigroup dropped their target price on CoStar Group from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $100.00 price target on shares of CoStar Group in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on CoStar Group from $108.00 to $99.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $93.25.

CoStar Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ CSGP opened at $79.81 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 181.39 and a beta of 0.82. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $75.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 9.63 and a current ratio of 9.63. CoStar Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $68.26 and a fifty-two week high of $100.38.

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The technology company reported $0.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.06. CoStar Group had a return on equity of 3.53% and a net margin of 6.57%. The company had revenue of $692.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $695.91 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.25 earnings per share. CoStar Group’s quarterly revenue was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that CoStar Group, Inc. will post 0.52 earnings per share for the current year.

CoStar Group Profile

CoStar Group, Inc provides information, analytics, and online marketplace services to the commercial real estate, hospitality, residential, and related professionals industries in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company offers CoStar Property that provides inventory of office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, and student housing properties and land; CoStar Sales, a robust database of comparable commercial real estate sales transactions; CoStar Market Analytics to view and report on aggregated market and submarket trends; and CoStar Tenant, an online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool that provides tenant information.